Here is Nina Kraviz, giving one a very good idea of the principles of mixing, as the camera is primarily focused on her equipment, which is two CD mixing desks, 2 (vinyl) turntables, a spare CD mixer and of course the mixing console itself, which has faders and various (many) pitch controls, e.g. for treble and bass. Now, personally I don't rate her in the top 20 world's best DJs, but compared with the average nightclub or pub DJ, she'll piss over them and stamp them into the ground. That's why she is is paid big bucks.

Skip into about 40-41 minutes, where you can see her spinning the record (vinyl) in order to sync it and adjusting the speed of the turntable with the vari-speed control.

Also, notice how she uses the headphones. Rarely are both ears covered by the headphone earpads, as she is using mono sound in order to get the correct mix.

Here is Nina Kraviz, giving one a very good idea of the principles of mixing, as the camera is primarily focused on her equipment, which is two CD mixing desks, 2 (vinyl) turntables, a spare CD mixer and of course the mixing console itself, which has faders and various (many) pitch controls, e.g. for treble and bass. Now, personally I don't rate her in the top 20 world's best DJs, but compared with the average nightclub or pub DJ, she'll piss over them and stamp them into the ground. That's why she is is paid big bucks.

Skip into about 40-41 minutes, where you can see her spinning the record (vinyl) in order to sync it and adjusting the speed of the turntable with the vari-speed control.

Also, notice how she uses the headphones. Rarely are both ears covered by the headphone earpads, as she is using mono sound in order to get the correct mix.

Here is Nina Kraviz, giving one a very good idea of the principles of mixing, as the camera is primarily focused on her equipment, which is two CD mixing desks, 2 (vinyl) turntables, a spare CD mixer and of course the mixing console itself, which has faders and various (many) pitch controls, e.g. for treble and bass. Now, personally I don't rate her in the top 20 world's best DJs, but compared with the average nightclub or pub DJ, she'll piss over them and stamp them into the ground. That's why she is is paid big bucks.

Skip into about 40-41 minutes, where you can see her spinning the record (vinyl) in order to sync it and adjusting the speed of the turntable with the vari-speed control.

Also, notice how she uses the headphones. Rarely are both ears covered by the headphone earpads, as she is using mono sound in order to get the correct mix.

Here is Nina Kraviz, giving one a very good idea of the principles of mixing, as the camera is primarily focused on her equipment, which is two CD mixing desks, 2 (vinyl) turntables, a spare CD mixer and of course the mixing console itself, which has faders and various (many) pitch controls, e.g. for treble and bass. Now, personally I don't rate her in the top 20 world's best DJs, but compared with the average nightclub or pub DJ, she'll piss over them and stamp them into the ground. That's why she is is paid big bucks.

Skip into about 40-41 minutes, where you can see her spinning the record (vinyl) in order to sync it and adjusting the speed of the turntable with the vari-speed control.

Also, notice how she uses the headphones. Rarely are both ears covered by the headphone earpads, as she is using mono sound in order to get the correct mix.

Nina has four fader controls, rectangular buttons near her on the mixing console, one for each bit of equipment. The two inside ones are for the vinyl turntables. The two outside ones are for the CD mixers. Volume off is down towards her, on is up away from her. Normally only two faders will be set upwards when she is mixing and then she'll slide one down towards her, after having mixed one source into another. The vinyl turntables are vari-speed, so after she has adjusted the stylus to the right part of the record, either by rotating the record itself or twisting the turntable spindle (either way) she can get the stylus into the right position in the groove for the next mix in. To do this you need to listen to the next source sound through headphones. It's very difficult mixing vinyl. I can't stress that enough.

Similarly with CD mixers, but they are not as sensitive in terms of skipping (needle slip) and various other issues that vinyl suffers from, e.g. dust/detritus collecting on the stylus and vinyl defects. Ideally for a vinyl record you need the best type of stylus to fit into the record grooves and this is usually one of an elongated elliptical profile and you are normally talking serious money here, as the stylus pick up is made out of diamond.

DJs tend to use cheaper cartridges than high end, as they are very easy to damage and they get a lot of wear and tear out on the circuit, compared with a high end hifi system you might have at home.